The Aim of the Imaging Core is to provide enabling technology in histology and microscopy for all five participants in this Developmental Biology COBRE. The Core will be housed in a 5000 square foot suite in OMRF's new Research Tower. Major pieces of equipment include standard upright and inverted microscopes, a Zeiss LSM-510 META laser scanning confocal microscope, a Hitachi H-7600 transmission electron microscope fitted with an AMT 2Kx2K ES 4.0 digital camera, a Zeiss TIRF microscope, a structured illumination microscope with Colibri LED illumination, and a newly acquired Zeiss LSM-710 multiphoton microscope with a Becker and Hickl FLIM system and full physiological capabilities. Sample preparation equipment includes two automatic tissue processors, a paraffin embedder, four microtomes, cryostats, a tissue trimmer and an automatic coverslipper. Dr. Paul Kincade, an expert in the use of fluorescence microscopy, will be the Director of the Imaging Core and technical assistance and day-to-day management will be provided by Mr. Ben Fowler who has managed the facility for more than a decade. Access to the Imaging Core will be free of charge for all COBRE participants. The research projects of all five Junior Investigators depend on histology and various types of microscopy (fluorescence, confocal, electron, and multiphoton), so this Core will be heavily used and is essential for the success of this COBRE.